Comparing Artistic Representations

Comparing Artistic Representations

The artistic representations appear in the form of paleolithic or Neolithic, where the paleolithic is an era between 3 million and 12,000 years ago. On the contrary, the Neolithic is an era between 12,000 and 2,000 years ago. These times vary based on the section of the world one is looking at wherein. Specifically, the paleolithic is an era when humans discovered the stone tools, whereas, in the Neolithic period, humans began farming. To gain an in-depth comparison of the two eras, it would be meaningful to look at some aspects, one of them being painting. Starting with the paleolithic era, the type of painting made was cave painting, which was necessitated through some techniques like using a swab or a brush to apply paint as well as using the mouth to spray paint (Cothren & Marilyn, 2018). The cave paintings were marked with some scenes like animals, handprints, and hunting. With the focus on the Neolithic era, the paintings were done on the walls, though they were not durable when compared to the cave paintings in the course of the paleolithic era. The common aspect between paintings in these two eras is that both paintings depicted hunting and animal scenes.

Secondly, it would be necessary to compare the Neolithic along with the paleolithic eras by looking at the sculpture. Starting with the paleolithic, the non-representational ornamentation happened to be the oldest examples of arts. These ornaments appeared to be decorative objects that do not portray animal, person, or thing. An example of the paleolithic sculpture entails the Venus figurine, which entails small figurines that may be designed from a bone, ivory, stone, or even clay. The figurine may be in the form of a naked woman coupled with exaggerated body parts along with the genitalia. With the focus on the Neolithic era, pottery was a common art during the era (Cothren & Marilyn, 2018). Alongside decorating permanent houses, pottery was used to store food. While the war paintings were confirmed not to be durable, pottery seemed to be more durable because the paint was baked into the surface of the potter, where the designed were quite simple and geometric.

Reference

Cothren, M.W &  Marilyin, S (2018). Art History Vol.1. New Jersey: Pearson.